Narratives of Women with Infertility Who Use Indigenous Practices to Conceive, North West Province, South Africa

Abstract

Infertility is a serious reproductive health challenge that has a far-reaching impact on women’s lives as they, inevitably, are the ones blamed for the failure to conceive. Despite availability of Western treatments to manage infertility, women frequently consult indigenous healthcare practitioners (IHCP) for healthcare, preferring these services to Western practice due to reasons such as accessibility and affordability. The study used a qualitative explorative, descriptive, and contextual design. Both purposive and snowballing technique were used to identify five women whom indigenous practitioners had assisted to conceive. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted and data were analyzed using the Tesch method of data analysis. IHCPs are known experts in managing infertility, experiences of women on indigenous management of infertility and continuous holistic management of infertility among women.